the.com/tap shoe
a percussion instrument disguised as footwear, played entirely with the feet at high speed
means A shoe fitted with small metal plates on the toe and heel that click sharply against the floor, used in tap dancing to create rhythmic sound.
from The "tap" is the same old word for a light striking blow — Old English "tæppa," echoing the soft knock of the sound itself, a word so plain it nearly is the noise it names. "Shoe" descends from Old English "sceoh," footwear as old as language. The metal taps themselves are a modern addition: early tap dancers wore wooden-soled or hard-leather shoes, and the screwed-on metal plates that define the shoe today became standard only in the early 20th century, as the dance form crystallized on American stages.
- metal taps
- Aluminum plates screwed onto toe and heel
- origin mashup
- Born from African and Irish step dance collision
- sound count
- Skilled dancers hit dozens of beats per second
- loose screws
- Dancers tune their taps by adjusting tightness
- no laces needed
- Many are slip-on or fastened with straps
rhythmic tap dancing — gregory hines performed on broadway in 'tap' (1985), defining modern tap shoe artistry
irish step dancing — riverdance (1994) popularized hard-soled tap shoes in irish dance worldwide
broadway tap percussion — savion glover won tony award (1996) for 'bring in 'da noise, bring in 'da funk' using tap shoes as instruments